I want to start a 501(c)3 charitable organization in the memory of my grandmother. Recently, I’ve really had a problem with the fact that she (and everyone) is ultimately a name carved on a rock for the rest of eternity. She did so much to reverse the downward trend my family had experienced for decades, with myself being the biggest beneficiary of her positivity and compassionate outlook on life.
The women in my family never had the opportunity to pursue a formal education. The reasons are many, but to name a couple of the primary — they married and became mothers at a very young age. If they wanted to pursue education beyond high school, it was nearly impossible between the time and money it would cost, when neither were available.
This would be the premise behind the ‘Cecile M. Milazzo Foundation.’ Education could never happen due to the high cost of childcare. If my mothers had the resources (namely money) for BOTH child care and education, then they would have had many more positive options available to them and would not have had to stay in bad situations.
I’d like for this Foundation to be a child care and academic scholarship aimed at ‘moms’ who need the financial support to attend a college or university (or career/certificate program), improve their situation, and create independence-through-options.
Implementation:
-This scholarship would disburse funds directly to the child care facility and higher learning institution.
-We will also provide the resources to help applicants fill out the FAFSA form as well as other grant applications (like stafford / pell). This would really help them with the overall process and affordability of going to school, and our foundation would seek to cover the remaining costs after FAFSA / grant funds are awarded.
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Where would we get the applicants? Would they come to us, or should we ask people for nominations on who might be in need of this scholarship? How should they be screened / what would the application look like? Who would make the final approval decision?
How much would be awarded? I mentioned paying for the ‘remaining costs,’ but that could vary by applicant and could be very significant. I’d want the amount of these scholarships to be enough to be meaningful.. For example, a $1,000 scholarship might not be enough to compel them to go to school (unless it’s the remaining amount after FAFSA, etc). $1,000 might not be enough to cover a meaningful part of childcare either. Although this could change, I think I’d like to shoot for these loans to be in the range of up to $10,000 and I’m not sure if this would be in total or per semester, or if they would have to re-apply after each year (with a minimum GPA requirement?).
Would there be a childcare ‘cap’? What if someone has 1 kid or 4 kids, is it unlimited daycare costs?
Would we be helping locally or nationally? Would we limit this to just community college or university?
Overall, I think this idea has merit, but not without revision. Please don’t hesitate to comment additional ideas or thoughts on how to improve / create / implement this program. Thank you!!!!
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I recently received feedback / suggestions from a colleague, who had the following to say:
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Website Resources to Research:
This website in particular was really helpful, I found it after I googled “scholarship programs for mothers”:
